Romeo and Juliette
Essay Preview: Romeo and Juliette
Report this essay
Firstly in Romeo and Juliet the circumstances surrounding the lovers after Romeo declares his love for Juliet creates positions of polarity as she recognises the inescapable doom they have entered. In Act 1 Scene 5, when Juliet speaks of Romeo it portrays her misfortune and she discovers that Romeo is from the unformed side of the Montagues, ”My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must have a loathed enemy.” As Romeo had declared his love for Juliet early that evening, Juliet is thinking about the consequences of her love which could lead to her disownment from her father, Capulet. The heroic couplet are used in sonnets which are associated with love; the effect of this is that it shows that Juliet has already fallen in love despite listing the negatives of her love. Also the juxtaposition between “me” and “enemy” as well as the oxymoron “My only love sprung from my only hate” displays that she is constantly contradicting herself, not knowing to either follow the path of fulfilling her familial duties or in favour of her heart. These contradictions suggest that she is unsure of what awaits her in the future, for she must uphold standards but also listen to her heart. Juliet has fallen irrevocably in love with Romeo and will continue her love for him as it is her “only love”. Theyre their own worst enemy, ultimately leading to their downfall, which is portrayed through the juxtaposition creating an inner polarity within Juliet. Additionally the “Birth of love” evokes innocence as it is pure love for the first time; which was irrelevant at the time of the play because noble women were seen as objects that were passed onto in exchange for fortune, if Juliet were to disobey her father from resale of marriage she would either be disowned or banished.
Equally, in Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth suffers from an inner polarity when deciding to kill Duncan the current King. In this scene both the epistasis and catastrophe are present throughout Macbeth’s